Every criminal wants a pardon, from former top Trump campaign aides to the star of Netflix’s Tiger King, Joe Exotic, and he’s willing to pay for it.
According to the New York Times, Representatives for Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage spent $10,000 at Trump’s Washington D.C Hotel in a bid to convince the president to pardon him.
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Maldonado-Passage was convicted of hiring someone to murder his rival Carole Baskin and was sentenced to 22 years in prison in January.
Since then, his reps have been trying to get Trump’s attention hoping he would pardon Exotic. They appeared on Fox News and Exotic even wrote a letter to Trump begging him to “allow me to make you proud, to make America proud, to make the world proud. Be my hero please.”
Asked if he would consider a pardon for Exotic in April, Trump said he will “look into it.”
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But at least one Republican who has the President’s ear is calling for Trump to pardon Joe Exotic. Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz told Fox News on Wednesday that Trump should pre-emptively pardon everyone, from administration officials to Joe Exotic to counter the blood lust from the ‘radical left’.
“President Trump should pardon Michael Flynn. He should pardon the Thanksgiving turkey. He should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to,” Congressman Gaetz said. “Because you see from the radical left a bloodlust that will only be quenched if they come after the people who worked so hard to animate the Trump administration with the policies and the vigor and the effectiveness that delivered for the American people. So I think the President ought to wield the pardon power effectively and robustly.”
